Women truckers making a mark in resource-rich Australia

0 Comments read Business and Trade, Gender
Trucks parked at a mine near Karratha in Western Australia. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Karratha (Western Australia), 15.11.2013: Growing up on a farm, Rosalie Hann would watch the haul trucks come in to collect wool bales and livestock. She would dream of one day driving these mammoth lorries herself. Today, the 39-year-old is an owner operator of a truck, subcontracting to Toll Energy in Dampier in the resource rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Rosalie is delighted to own and operate her own equipment in what is otherwise a very male-dominated industry. While women comprise about 50 per cent of the Australian population, they only make up around 10 per cent of the mine workforce. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Labour Force Estimates for February 2010 quarter, there were 23,260 women employed in the mining industry and 4,483 of them were truck drivers.

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The clock is ticking on koala conservation

0 Comments read Environment & Development
Koalas at the Wild Life Sydney Zoo at Darling Harbour. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 30.04.2013 (IPS and The Guardian): Australia’s iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling to survive as habitat destruction caused by droughts and bushfires, land clearing for agriculture and logging, and mining and urban development conspire against this cuddly creature.

In the past 20 years, the koala population has significantly declined, dropping by 40 percent in the state of Queensland and by a third in New South Wales (NSW). The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) estimates that there are between 45,000 and 90,000 koalas left in the wild.

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Di Bella coffee set to enter India by January

0 Comments read Business and Trade

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.01.2013 (Business Standard): Australia’s fastest-growing and most-awarded coffee company, Di Bella Coffee, plans to enter the Indian market with, at least, six cafés in Mumbai in January. It would be followed with cafés in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

A core team of eight, headed by general manager Rahul Leekha, is in Mumbai preparing for the launch and interviewing people with high-end food and beverage skill sets.

“We will employ 50 people, who would undergo two to four weeks training under our baristas from Australia,” said Sachin Sabharwal, managing director, Di Bella Coffee India Pvt Ltd, and a partner in the Australian company.

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